Another round of balance changes is headed its way to Hearthstone with a patch arriving this Thursday, August 29. Patch 20.2.2 will be hitting Standard, Wild, and Battlegrounds, including Trinkets. Let's see what they've teased so far, actual balance changes to be revealed at a later time.
Standard Balance Teases
We're primarily seeing the patch focus on Buffs for cards in the Standard format.
Buffs
- Treasure Hunter Eudora
- Maestra, Mask Merchant
- Furious Fowls
- Mystery Egg
- Fetch!
- The Ryecleaver
- Food Fight
- Boom Wrench
- Watercolor Artist
- Raylla, Sand Sculptor
- Marooned Archmage
- DJ Manastorm
- Ci'Cigi
Nerfs
Wild Balance Teases
Only nerfs coming for Wild cards.
Nerfs
Battlegrounds Balance Teases
Battlegrounds sees buffs, nerfs, and two cards making a return.
Buffs
- Guff Runetotem
- Lightfang Enforcer
- Crow's Nest Sentry
- Ice Fisher
- Cruise Controller
- Thundering Abomination
- Bountiful Bedrock
- Wannabe Gargoyle
- Hunter of Gatherers
- Channel the Devourer
Nerfs
- Ancestral Automaton
- Snail Cavalry
- Zesty Shaker
Returning Cards
- Upbeat Frontdrake
- Corrupted Myrmidon
Make your predictions on the changes in the comments below!
Comments
I like the overall approach here. Most of the nerfs seem kinda easy to predict:
The big question is how these changes will effect the meta. I expect Pack Rogue to die but I'm not sure what might come up to be the next top dog. Board based aggro still looks strong with Shadow Priest, Pirate Rogue, Pirate Demon Hunter. Reno Priest, Reno Druid, Reno Paladin will try to keep them in check. I recently saw a friend climb to top 100 with Frog Shaman. Magmarager had a winrate of 75% with Warsong Warrior. Last but not least I managed to get to rank 383 with Even Rainbow DK. There's a lot going on in Wild right now and I really like that.
The buffs look interesting, let's hope they aren't only Mana discounts. Hunter desperately needs something meaningful to do. Big Warrior is a huge gamble imo because that deck should never be competitive, you only want it to be good enough to not be completely miserable. You don't want a Big Priest era in Standard. Thief Rogue will stay trash no matter how much you tune it, but I hope the buffs will help people have some more fun with it. Not sure about Big Spell Mage honestly, that one has a dangerous feeling for me... if it gets too good, we'll end up with one of these oppressive decks that you have very little agency against. Between a buffed DJ Manastorm, King Tide, The Galactic Projection Orb, Sunset Volley and Tsunami something might be coming together. Finally big hopes for Ci'Cigi to have her effect changed to a Battlecry!
Regarding the Wild adjustments
"Hmm, those cards look familiar..." :/
Sorcerer's Apprentice has a longer rap sheet than Al Capone.
I played a bit of both thief rogue and big warrior for achievement purposes, and boy did it go rough. They had similar problems, actually: you burn a mid-game turn for no or little board impact, then you have to spend a turn or two on setup, and *then* you make a power play and hope it was enough to swing things back, and if it wasn't you just die (assuming you weren't killed during your setup turns). The Sandwich costing four is brutal and probably the pressure point.